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The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization

By Tomas Larsson

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$4.99

Available formats

Available formats

About the Book

Globalization—it’s the hot-button word of the new century.

As people all over the world become more culturally and economically connected, a backlash is developing. From Seattle to Genoa, protesters travel to every meeting of international economic institutions to denounce global markets.

What’s the real story of globalization? Is it a “race to the bottom,” as the critics of capitalism insist? Or a race to the top, as Tomas Larsson suggests?

Instead of debates among theoreticians and activists, it’s time for some on-the-ground reporting about the effects of globalization.

Larsson, a Swedish journalist, spent ten years reporting from Bangkok. In this book he takes us to the slums of Rio, a bicycle factory in Korea, a brothel in a back corner of Thailand, and more. In all the places, he finds that the changes of the past ten years have given people tremendous opportunities. His perspective on globalization differs from those of Pat Buchanan, William Greider, or the Seattle protesters. And it’s more vivid than econometric articles because it’s on-the-spot reporting from all over the developing world.

Tomas Larsson looks past the dry statistics and arid debates to examine real people around the world. He finds that, thanks to the spread of global markets, hundreds of millions of previously poor people have left poverty and misery behind them and taken their place among the global middle class. This is a book full of good news, more relevant than ever as the world’s finance ministers cower behind chainlink fences, afraid to defend the economic system that is spreading wealth more broadly than ever.

About the Author

Tomas Larsson is a Swedish journalist now living in the United States.

What Others Have Said

“Tomas Larsson tells the real story of globalization, which is the story of the expansion of individual liberty and personal responsibility. How much support would ‘anti-dumping’ legislation get if it were called, as it should be, anti-shopping legislation?”—P.J.O’Rourke, Author, The CEO of the Sofa

“After all the theorizing about globalization, here finally is a book that shows us how it works, what it looks like, and how it tastes. From the Thai brothels to the Brazilian slums to a Hutterite community in Washington state, Tomas Larsson has given us real examples of real people coping with and thriving in the new economy.”—David Brooks, Author Bobos in Paradise